Labor, Coalition clash on vision for northern food bowl

It’s an irresistible equation really. Growing demand in Asia for food and the idea that there are vast tracts of underdeveloped land in the north of Australia have rekindled the interest of both major parties in the possibilities for expanding agricultural production.

Developing the north to capture some of these opportunities is firmly on the agenda of both Labor and the Coalition, but their visions differ dramatically, as do their plans for pursuing them.

The Coalition is more gung-ho, largely because it is more willing to contemplate new dams, but Labor is more pragmatic about sourcing the large-scale investment that all agree is needed to underpin expensive infrastructure development.

The Coalition’s ambitions are held back by the Nationals’ reluctance to woo Chinese investment, just as Labor’s vision is constrained by environmental concerns about building dams.

The language Nationals leader
Warren Truss
uses as he enthuses about the great frontier of the north reveals how he sees it as a patriotic venture. He laments the reticence of Australian investors and hints a Coalition government may offer incentives to overcome reservations.

“Our country should be more optimistic about itself, prouder of its natural resources and capabilities, and rekindle the pioneering spirit that built this country," Truss tells the Weekend Financial Review.

“We should give young Australians and those with vision and imagination the opportunity to participate in the opening up of the north for more intensive agricultural uses. We should play an active role in trying to encourage Australian agricultural companies and other investors to capture the imagination and be prepared to be a part of it."

Perhaps the Coalition should consider recruiting actor Hugh Jackman, with his brawn and experience portraying a northern cattleman in director Baz Luhrmann’s cinematic epic Australia, to front a campaign to inspire nervous investors to embrace the pioneering spirit and possibilities that abound in the continent’s north.

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Or maybe the Labor government could hire Luhrmann to reprise his epic, albeit with a revised plot involving a beautiful cashed-up Chinese investor venturing into the wilds of the north and falling for Jackman’s rugged charm as the two conquer the odds to build a new and fertile food bowl.

Trade Minister
Craig Emerson
sees big opportunities for Australian farmers as global food demand is projected to rise 70 per cent by 2050. He says foreign investment can help turn the dream of a northern food bowl into a reality.

“There’s already 7 billion people on earth – another 2 billion to be added by 2035," Emerson said earlier this year. “And in addition to that big increase in population, the rising middle classes of Asia are demanding more high-protein foods, and for Australia that means more beef, more sheep meat and more dairy products.

“This would be market-driven. But we’d need to allow the market to work, and that is allow foreign investment to supplement Australian investment, instead of being xenophobic about this."

Emerson has commissioned a joint feasibility study with the Chinese government into the opportunities for investment in developing Australian agriculture. He believes that rising global food prices may mean some agricultural ventures previously considered too expensive may become profitable.

But Emerson’s focus is on the market opportunities, not on the hydrology and topography of the north. And previous Labor-commissioned studies have highlighted the physical constraints on development, which were again noted in the green paper on the national food plan released recently by Agriculture Minister
Joe Ludwig
.

It referred to a 2009 report by the Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce, which found there was room for only a modest expansion of irrigation to about 60,000 hectares, an area smaller than some farms.

This was based in part on CSIRO research showing that high evaporation rates and the topography of the region make it difficult to capture and store water.

“These constraints mean large-scale expansion of irrigated agriculture in northern Australia – the scale of which will be required to create a northern food bowl – does not appear to be sustainable or feasible, but other options may be," the green paper concluded.

Putting aside the stirring rhetoric and the Luhrmann-esque romance of the north, both Coalition and Labor hard-headed pragmatists have looked at the realities.

On the Labor side, Regional Development Minister
Simon Crean
has been talking to the governments of Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory and to local councils about the opportunities and challenges.

On a visit to Hughenden in north Queensland in the past week, Crean talked about how expansion of irrigation around the Flinders and Gilbert rivers could diversify agricultural production and “help Australia achieve its goal of becoming the food bowl of Asia".

On the Coalition side, frontbencher
Andrew Robb
– a former head of the National Farmers Federation – is finalising reports to be released in coming months on the potential for development of the north and on the options for new dams. He believes Australia can double its food production.

“There’s a patchwork of opportunities right across the north," he says. “But it does need some sensible water catchment."

Robb says Labor’s draft national food plan is “the most unambitious, narrow-minded piece of work imaginable" and proves Labor is intent on blocking any development of dams. “When push comes to shove, they are totally beholden to the Greens," Robb says. “They’re going to ignore serious opportunities for growth and development because of political imperatives."

After a week in which the Nationals have again raised concerns about foreign investors buying up agricultural assets, the same may well be said of the Coalition.